Selmeczi László szerk.: Szolnok Megyei Múzeumi Évkönyv (1981)

L. Szabó: Changes of the Forms of Jazigian Self-Consciousness

László, Szabó: CHANGES OF THE FORMS OF JAZYGIAN SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS In 1241, under the reign of Béla IV, Hungary was invaded by the raging Tartars. The population of the country was decimated. After the disappearance of the Tartars, the areas that had been laid waste were repopulated with Cumanians, who had been constituting the Moldavian nomadic state. The settlers were given nomadic privileges and self-government but in exchange were obliged to adopt Christian faith and settle down. The Jazygians came in Hungary as a constituent of the nomadic Cumanian people. They, being of Alanic origins, made up the settled stratum of peasants and craftsmen among the Cumanian peoples of Moldava. Their style of life as well as their legal status had differed from those of the Cumanians, and they had been integrated into the Cumanian empire as one of the auxiliary peoples subjected by the Cumanians. The Cumanian settlement took place on the left bank of the Tisza, along the Körös and Maros rivers and on the Cisdanubian territory, while the Jazygians were given the southern part of the basin of the Zagyva, which was more siutable for agriculture. The names of settlers are preserved in the names of the settlements of Cumania Maior along the Tisza, Körös and Berettyó rivers, in Cumania Minor between the Danube and Tisza, and Jazygia along the Zagyva. Although the inhabitants of Jazygia and the two Cumanias had in the meantime adopted Magyar ways and were decimated by the fights, plagues and economic uncertainty under the one and the half centuries of Turkish rule (16-18th centuries), the original Jazygian and Cumanian population did not die out entirely, and maintained Jazygian and Cumanian self-consciousness and the memory of their foreign origins. The author has undertaken the task of covering the history of Jazygian self-consciousness (identity) in Jazygia, in the basin of the Zagyva, from the time of the first written records up to our days, and exploring the various aspects and forms of Jazygian identity, finding out what being a Jazygian meant during the succeeding ages. /. THE AGE OF THE ETHNIC SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE JAZYGIANS In the post-settlement period after 1241 the records did not mention the Jazygians for a long time. It was indifferent to the Magyars what peoples or ethnic groups arrived together with the leading Cumanian tribes. The Jazygians, however, were aware of the differences. In the first years in Hungary their main ambition was to get rid of the Cumanian authority, and to attain the privileges of the Cumanians. Their agriculture and different religion of non-shamanism made possible an assimilation to the Magyars and the emergence of feudal hierarchy earlier than the Cumanians. The author points out that the Jazygians at their first appearance already (in 1323) when applying to the king for rights similar to those of the Cumanians emphasized their being different, being another people. They used the term "kindred of the Jazygians" (Jazones et tota generatio eorum) independent ofthat of the Cumanians. The argumentation being characteristically that of a clan-society, is based on the awareness of different origins. Beside the undoubtedly existing origin traditions, there were several facts emphasizing their differences from the Cumanians. The author underlines that the Jazygian (Alanic) language belongs to the Indo-Iranian family, and differs considerably from the Kiptchak-Turkish Cumanian language. A Jazygian vocabulary appearing in 1422 in Hungary and the personal names of Jazygian origin prove that the Jazygian language was still used at the time of the arrival, and was replaced by Magyar only in the 16th century. The physico-anthropological features of the Jazygians were also different. The tall stature was obvious in comparison with that of the Cumanians, who were even shorter than the Magyars. The Jazygian agriculture separated them culturally from the Cumanians. Similarly to the surrounding Hungarian settlements, the so-called garden settlement (double curtilage) appeared fairly early, which made the combination of stockbreeding and farming possible. This type of settlement, for example, cannot be found in Cumania Maior. The origins of the early village can be traced to the nomadic abodes. The athor finds it important that the originally Zoroastrian Weltanschauung precluded the re-embracement of shamanism, and made them approach Christianity or the Islam. It would appear that by the time they entered Hungary they had learned about eastern Christianity which facilitated their adjustment to Hungarian feudal society earlier than the Cumanians. So during the one and a half centuries after the settlement, self-consciousness of the Jazygians served the separation from the Cumanians and to get their own privileges. The self-consciousnes must have been based on actual language, anthropological, economic and cultural separation and, it appeared as gentilism, a phenomenon characteristic of tribal societies. Nevertheless the awareness of different origins and the actual separation would not have been enough to reach independent privileges. It would have helped at least the separation from the Cumanians. A new motive of references to historical deeds and services turned up already in the age of ethnic identity. The historical consciousness implied references to the Jazygian military services rendered (by all means under Cumanian leadership) to the Hungarian kings. They underlined how much blood they had sacrificed for the protection of the kings, and on this ground they asked for the privileges sanctified by feudal society, which were in fact achieved along with further obligations of military services. This fact helped them to get rid of Cumanian overlordship and administration, and to adjust to the feudal hierarchy of Hungary, as a privileged ethnic group of territorial nobility. While the ethnic consciousness served the separation from the Cumanians, the historical one helped to attain feudal privileges. 2. THE AGE OF CONSTITUTIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS The separation from the Cumanians and the assimilation to feudal society were accompanied by gradual Magyarization. They settled down earlier than the Cumanians. In the first half of the 15th century their settlements and villages were predominently agricultural. By 1472 the conversion to Christianity 146